NAME

    dcm2xml


SYNOPSIS

    dcm2xml [options] dcmfile-in [xmlfile-out]


SUMMARY

The dcm2xml utility converts the contents of a DICOM file (file format or
raw data set) to XML (Extensible Markup Language).  The DTD (Document Type
Definition) is described in the file "apps/dcm2xml.dtd".

If dcm2xml reads a raw data set (DICOM data without a file format meta-header)
it will attempt to guess the transfer syntax by examining the first few bytes
of the file.  It is not always possible to correctly guess the transfer syntax
and it is better to convert a data set to a file format whenever possible
(using the dcmconv utility).  It is also possible to use the -f and -t[ieb]
options to force dcm2xml to read a data set with a particular transfer syntax.


USAGE

dcm2xml: Convert DICOM file and data set to XML
usage: dcm2xml [options] dcmfile-in [xmlfile-out]

parameters:
  dcmfile-in                   DICOM input filename to be converted
  xmlfile-out                  XML output filename (default: stdout)

general options:
  -h     --help                print this help text and exit
         --version             print version information and exit
  -d     --debug               debug mode, print debug information
input options:
  input file format:
    +f   --read-file           read file format or data set (default)
    -f   --read-dataset        read data set without file meta information
  input transfer syntax (only with --read-dataset):
    -t=  --read-xfer-auto      use TS recognition (default)
    -te  --read-xfer-little    read with explicit VR little endian TS
    -tb  --read-xfer-big       read with explicit VR big endian TS
    -ti  --read-xfer-implicit  read with implicit VR little endian TS
  long tag values:
    +M   --load-all            load very long tag values (e.g. pixel data)
    -M   --load-short          do not load very long values (default)
output options:
  XML structure:
    +Xd  --add-document-type   add reference to document type definition (DTD)
  DICOM elements:
    +Wb  --write-binary-data   write binary data of OB and OW elements
                               (default: off, be careful with --load-all)
    +Eb  --encode-base64       encode binary data as Base64 (RFC 2045, MIME)


NOTES

The basic structure of the XML output created from a DICOM image file looks
like the following:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
  <!DOCTYPE file-format SYSTEM "dcm2xml.dtd">
  <file-format>
    <meta-header xfer="1.2.840.10008.1.2.1" name="LittleEndianExplicit">
      <element tag="0002,0000" vr="UL" vm="1" len="4" name="MetaElementGroupLength">166</element>
      ...
      <element tag="0002,0013" vr="SH" vm="1" len="16" name="ImplementationVersionName">OFFIS_DCMTK_351</element>
    </meta-header>
    <data-set xfer="1.2.840.10008.1.2" name="LittleEndianImplicit">
      <element tag="0008,0005" vr="CS" vm="1" len="10" name="SpecificCharacterSet">ISO_IR 100</element>
      ...
      <sequence tag="0028,3010" vr="SQ" card="2" name="VOILUTSequence">
        <item card="3">
          <element tag="0028,3002" vr="xs" vm="3" len="6" name="LUTDescriptor">256\0\8</element>
          ...
        </item>
        ...
      </sequence>
      ...
      <element tag="7fe0,0010" vr="OW" vm="1" len="262144" name="PixelData" loaded="no" binary="hidden"></element>
    </data-set>
  </file-format>

The "file-format" and "meta-header" tags are absent for DICOM data sets.

The XML encoding is determined automatically from the DICOM attribute
(0008,0005) "Specific Character Set" (if present) using the following mapping:

  ASCII         "ISO_IR 6"    =>  "UTF-8"
  ISO Latin 1   "ISO_IR 100"  =>  "ISO-8859-1"
  ISO Latin 2   "ISO_IR 101"  =>  "ISO-8859-2"
  ISO Latin 3   "ISO_IR 109"  =>  "ISO-8859-3"
  ISO Latin 4   "ISO_IR 110"  =>  "ISO-8859-4"
  ISO Latin 5   "ISO_IR 148"  =>  "ISO-8859-9"
  Cyrillic      "ISO_IR 144"  =>  "ISO-8859-5"
  Arabic        "ISO_IR 127"  =>  "ISO-8859-6"
  Greek         "ISO_IR 126"  =>  "ISO-8859-7"
  Hebrew        "ISO_IR 138"  =>  "ISO-8859-8"

Multiple character sets are not supported (only the first attribute value is
mapped in case of value multiplicity).

Attributes with very large value fields (e.g. pixel data) are not loaded by
default.  They can be identified by the additional attribute "loaded" with a
value of "no" (see example above).  The command line option "--load-all" forces
to load all value fields including the very long ones.

Furthermore, binary information of OB and OW attributes are not written to the
XML output file by default.  These elements can be identified by the additional
attribute "binary" with a value of "hidden" (default is "no").  The command
line option "--write-binary-data" causes also binary value fields to be printed
(attribute value is "yes" or "base64").  But, be careful when using this option
together with "--load-all" because of the large amounts of pixel data that might
be printed to the output.

Multiple values (i.e. where the DICOM value multiplicity is greater than 1)
are separated by a backslash "\" (except for Base64 encoded data).  The "len"
attribute indicates the number of bytes for the particular value field as
stored in the DICOM data set, i.e. it might deviate from the XML encoded value
length e.g. because of non-significant padding that has been removed.  If this
attribute is missing in "sequence" or "item" start tags, the corresponding
DICOM element has been stored with undefined length.


ENVIRONMENT

The dcm2xml utility will attempt to load DICOM data dictionaries specified in
the DCMDICTPATH environment variable.  By default, if the DCMDICTPATH
environment variable is not set, the file /usr/local/dicom/lib/dicom.dic will
be loaded.  The default behaviour should be preferred and the DCMDICTPATH
environment variable only used when alternative data dictionaries are
required.  The DCMDICTPATH environment variable has the same format as the
shell PATH variable in that a colon (":") separates entries.  The data
dictionary code will attempt to load each file specified in the DCMDICTPATH
environment variable.  It is an error if no data dictionary can be loaded.